Metamorphosis
by NixKat
Summary: Not long after his trip to Bellwood, a certain vigilante is going through some changes and they may not be for the better. Things go from bad to worse when a certain government agent shows up. Crossover between Ben 10:AF/UA and TMNT. Warning: violence, gore, foul language, and body horror. Parings include: Gwevin (Gwen/Kevin), Benlie (Ben/Julie), and Capril (Casey/April).
1. Chapter 1 Malaise

A/N: This is the beginning of the sequel to Contact. This one's going to be heavy on the TMNT universe side as opposed to the last one. Yes there will blood, violence, gore, foul language, and potential body horror in this fic. Paring definitely include Capril, Gwevin, and Benlie.

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters, settings, mythos, etc. from either the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Franchise or the Ben 10 Franchise. I do own what elements that I have completely made up and my OCs. This fic is done for fun not profit so please do not sue.

Merrowww….

Metamorphosis

Malaise

She was worried about the man currently resting in their bed. The brunette was slick with sweat and flushed red from forehead to navel as a fever raged within him. The redhead placed a damp cloth on her fiancé's brow as he slept. Quietly the pale woman slipped out of the room.

"How is he?" Her younger friend's voice floated through the hall well before she came into sight. The teen's younger brother brooded in the corner, appearing uninterested in everything but the woman knew that he was secretly concerned with the welfare of his best friend. Sighing she plopped down next to the purple clad teenager on the new couch.

"He's asleep," The human female replied to the mutated chelonian teen. "But he doesn't seem to be getting any better. Thankfuly his doctor is going to see us in the morning."

"At least he's sleeping." Donatello offered attempting to relieve her stress. Tapping a thick pointer finger on the tip of his beak he suggested, "April, do you mind if I take a few samples from Casey to see if I can find out anything myself?"

"No problem Donnie," O'Neil smiled and gave the giant Red-eared Slider a hug before getting off the couch to make some soup. "But you might want Raph to help. Casey is a bit disoriented and he has a thing about needles."

"Right. We just need to stop by the Lair first and pick up a few things."

Merrowww…..

Dazed blue eyes blinked at the terrapins. The distinct feeling of being pricked with a needle had woken him from his exhaustion induced slumber (don't ask how he could recognize the feeling of a needle prick while unconscious, let's just say that he was once green at the vigilante gig and that there were and are some really bad people in New York). Normally he would have acted on his first instinct and lashed out at whoever was doing something to him with sharp objects in his sleep. Normally he would but he was feeling so lethargic that he could barely move.

That head cold he felt starting when he left Bellwood turned out not to be a head cold. At first, it was just a stuffed nose and the sniffles. Then it grew to include a sore throat and a bad cough. Ever had a bad cough with a sore throat? It's horrible, absolutely fucking horrible. He was still feeling well enough the other day to drive to his Auntie's place to drop off Shadow to get her acquainted with some of the other members of the Jones clan. On the way back the vigilante just started to get tired. He sorta passed out at the wheel and Ape had to take over so they wouldn't crash and die in a terrible fiery wreck. Since then the normally hyperactive man had been feeling weak and extremely hot (and not in a good way).

"Heeey Raaaphiee," The vigilante greeted the red clad turtle that was physically restraining him at the moment. His speech slurring a bit as he spoke since his tongue feeling just as heavy as the rest of him. "Whaaatchuuu doooin' GeeeekFaaceee?"

"I'm just taking a few samples to do some tests, Casey." The super genius reptile answered the not very sharp mammal. Thick fingers removed the needle and sealed the vial now filled with Jones' blood before placing a Scooby Doo bandage on the hole.

"Ooaaky dooaakie." The brunette mumbled as he drifted off back into dreamless sleep feeling hotter than before.

Merrowww…..

A/N: Yay! The beginning of a new fanfic. I'm still debating on which villains should show up besides the Purple Dragons.


	2. Chapter 2 Metastasis

A/N: The next chapter of Metamorphosis is here. Please note that the chimera form that Animo forced Casey into will not appear for him, I have something else in mind. Poor Case, it hurts to be one of my favorite characters. To anyone reading this that haven't yet seen Casey Jones: The Movie, you should look it up, it's pretty good. Also, if you haven't heard it yet, the song Goongala! by Jonny October it's pretty fawesome.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the TMNTverses or the Ben 10 franchise I'm only doing this for fun and to practice my writing. I also happen to be a broke college student so if you do sue you're not likely to get much.

Metamorphosis

Metastasis

_The world was black and red as the beast patrolled his territory for them: lawbreakers. Murderers, rapists, muggers, thieves, purse-snatchers, carjackers, bootleggers, jaywalkers, loiterers (dimly he noted that the last two might be a bit much) would all feel his wrath... especially Purple Dragons. He knew where this was going and he didn't feel like reliving that nightmare again so he decided take another route._

…_well he decided to but apparently, his body had other plans. Grabbing his dream body's strong shoulders, he tried again to stop himself. Suddenly, his dream self whirled around and stared right at him. _

_It was… disturbing to say the least. The eyes behind the snarling bone white mask were not his familiar baby blues. They were a chilling glacier blue-white surrounded by the faintest sickly green glow. Beneath the moth slits, naked moonlight reflected off teeth uncovered by a spreading decidedly cruel smile… a smile with many, many unusually sharp teeth. It distracted him as it rose higher than he stood from the other changes taking place in his double. The sound of ripping cloth and skin finally caught his attention but by then it was too late._

_A sharp-clawed hand pushed their iconic mask up the beast's muzzle revealing the malicious grin in its fullest…_

…

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

The brunette shot up in bed. A silent scream caught in his throat as sweat poured off his nude form. He slammed a calloused paw on the annoying machine to silence its painful screeching. The ill man sighed upon hearing the faint crack of broken plastic; odd he didn't even think he hit it that hard. For some reason he felt compelled to keep his hand on the alarm clock but he was happy that the ache in his lower back subsided as he did so.

"Time to get up already?" April yawned at his side. The lovely pale redhead stretched out the sleepiness from her limbs. She placed a delightfully warm hand on his shoulder and leaned over to pick up a hand cloth that fell into his lap, he wasn't really paying that much attention to the action as he leaned into her warmth. "Come on big guy, we need to be ready to head to the hospital in an hour."

He watched April get up from their bed and head for the bathroom. Her nicely curved form mostly hidden by his old team jersey was a more than welcome sight to his literally sore eyes. After a moment, the vigilante brushed off the covers and stumbled over to his closet to grab some clothing.

When his green-eyed fiancé came back to the bedroom wrapped in the most ridiculously fluffy yellow towel, he went to take his turn in the bathroom. Dropping his clothes on the floor the man climbed into the shower. He turned the water on full blast and involuntarily shuddered at the sensation of water droplets pelting his well-toned flesh. On a whim, he turned the knob for the hot water further and continued as the heat drove away more of his aches and left him feeling much less exhausted than he did last night. He stayed under the water until the spray ran cold and he turned it off. Drying with his favorite mahogany towel, he got dressed quickly. As the brunette exited the room he briefly wondered if April had fixed them something to eat.

That would be nice 'cause he was pretty hungry all of a sudden.

Merrowww….

"That is not good." The scientifically inclined mutated terrapin said to himself. He decided to get a second opinion because if he was observing what he thought he was then Casey's condition was worse than anyone thought… and possibly dangerous.

He took out his Shell Cell and dialed. When the other reptilian scientist picked up the line on the other end the mutant crocodilian could easily pick up a bit of fear mixed in the Red-eared Slider's generally worried tone.

"Hey, Leatherhead, would you mind coming over and checking something out for me?"

Merrowww…..

_At least his fever broke._ April thought to herself as she glanced over at her fiancé as she drove. _And his appetite's back, too._ Yesterday he would barely eat anything even before he passed out and last night she could only get him to swallow a few spoonfuls of chicken noodle soup. Now the brunette couldn't seem to get full, after slurping up the leftover soup the man gobbled up a few HotPockets and some fruit, he had gotten up to get more when she drug him out of the apartment. Currently, Casey was pouting like an overgrown two year old because they didn't have time to go by a drive through and pick up something else.

If she didn't know any better, the redhead would have thought that the vigilante was recovering from whatever was ailing him. However, a few things were preventing that, like how unnaturally cold his skin felt. While she was better with technology than biology, she knew that someone's body temperature making a complete 180 in less than a day was not a good thing. It also looked like his migraine was still there.

…

"_Casey_…" She warned, as the short-tempered man looked ready to sock the doctor about to draw his blood. The blue-eyed man settled for a positively fearsome death glare at the older man. Dr. Hernandez worked quickly and wasn't fazed by his patient's bad mood. Finished the doctor scribbled notes and handed her a slip with the date to come back. Ready to go Casey took a lollipop and went to go wait in the car.

"Good luck and have a nice day Miss O'Neil," The Hispanic middle-aged man said shaking his head. "You might just need it with that lunatic. I'll try to have those results for you two as soon as possible. Adios."

When she got back to the van, she could see the vigilante rubbing his lower back with a pained expression etched on his face. The lollipop stick sat in the ashtray bare of the sugary treat it once wore.

"You okay?" She asked as she climbed in the vehicle. He groaned and flopped back into the seat. His tanned skin was flushed beet red but was still oddly cool under her palm.

"Yeah, my back just aches a bit." Casey replied giving her a variant of his usual goofball grin that she's come to interpret as him hiding something because he didn't want anyone to worry. Normally she found that particular smile to be slightly infuriating but at the moment it was kinda sweet. "Can we go get some lunch, I feel like I'm starvin' ova here." And the sweetness disappeared just like that.

….

While she loved the man, sometimes Casey's behavior was just plain embarrassing. Right now, the redhead was trying her hardest to become invisible as the brunette sitting across from her was stuffing himself with as much food as his stomach could hold. Quite loudly, she might add. April surreptitiously tried to hide her face with a slim hand from the looks they were getting from a few nearby tables. The ravenous man paid no mind to the stares and whispers.

She was rather relieved when her cell phone rang, giving her an excuse to leave the table.

"What's up, Donnie?" April greeted as she leaned against the wall in the ladies' room of the buffet.

"_Hey April,"_ the teen replied. She sensed something off in his voice. _"How did Casey's appointment go?"_

"Don, what's wrong?"

"_Well… we found something…"_

Merrowww….

"_GOONGALA! GOONGALA!" The vigilante swung and his bat met the yielding flesh of one unlucky Purple Dragon's gut causing the goon to double over. His other bat slammed against his prey's spine taking him out of the battle. The skumbag's running buddy decided to cut his losses and abandon his downed ally. That wasn't going to happen on his watch. The bone-faced demon took a moment to aim then tossed both bats with great accuracy knocking down the puke. If the screams and curses that were streaming out of the tattooed gangbanger's mouth as he smoothly approached were any indication, then one of his legs was probably broken._

"_What? Baby wanna cry?" He taunted, a cruel smile blossoming beneath the fixed snarl of his mask. After easing out one of his hockey sticks, he gave it a little twirl, basking in the palpable fear of the crook. Then the vigilante swung it as hard as he could into the knee of the leg the other was cradling causing the joint to bend backwards. Still grinning the beast lifted the stick high over his head he swung again and again and again… till something scaly grabbed his wrist. _

"_Casey! Calm down!" the turtle restraining him's bandana was as red as his vision. His breath fast and his body trembling in anger as the terrapin spoke. "Didn't we talk about the whole controllin' ya anger thing?"_

_Jerking out of the shorter being's grip, he turned to face him. Self-control, restraint, after everything the Dragons did to him? _**Why?**_ …_that's right_; the turtles weren't all that merciful to their arch-nemesises, the only reason they didn't off the Shredder or Bishop yet wasn't due to lack of trying. Why should he have to hold back? _**Don't. Dragons prey, Dragons enemies. Hunt, fight… kill.**

"_**Stay outta this Raph."**__He warned in a voice not entirely his own. He didn't understand it completely but he sensed that if they fought now, he wouldn't stop till someone was dead. He hoped it wouldn't come to that as he was kind of fond of the reptilian hothead (not that he'd say so out loud mind you)._

_The anthropomorphic turtle drew his sai; there was a hint of sadness on his scaly face. The vigilante felt like frowning but his lips turned up into a predatory grin instead._

_It was more unnerving when his tongue slid itself across unnaturally pointed teeth..._

….

"Oww, oww, ouch!" Casey let go of the oddly warm finger of the turtle that woke him and gave the orange clad teen a glare. Rough gloved hands rubbed aching temples as it felt like someone had taken his sledgehammer and gone to town on his skull. "Sorry, sounded like you were having one shell of a bad dream."

"**Thanks Mikey."** Yeesh, it sounded like he was doing his Dirty Harry impression and he wasn't even trying. The vigilante tried to clear his throat to remedy the problem only to feel like his gullet was on fire. The brunette sat up feeling his body ache, the most stinging pain in his lower back. His empty belly voiced its need to be filled. **"Um, Mike do you mind making me somethin' to eat? Please?"**

"No problem dude."

Merrowww….

"I'm commandeering those samples." The man facing him brought to mind those scary government agents in the movies his girls loved to watch. The brown-skinned man assumed that that might have been what the other was going for. As he took the samples the doctor had collected earlier from his favorite, it slightly mentally unstable, ex-hockey player.

"Thank you for your cooperation." The agent managed say it in a way that made his mustache curl in disgust. The other turned to leave, his black long coat swishing dramatically.

How was he going to explain this?

Merrowww….

_A dark blob slithered closer to the red blood cell before grabbing it with one of pseudopodia. The strange cell held onto its captive for a moment until the center of the crimson disk swelled and darkened. The human blood cell was then released as it changed from a bloated ball to a maroon stereotypic UFO shape. The same thing was happening all over the slide like a mini cellular version of bad zombie movie._

"_I see what you mean." April confirmed as she looked up from the microscope. The purple clad terrapin nodded and exchanged the blood sample slide for one containing a tissue sample from her fiancé. Bringing emerald green eyes to the eyepieces of the machine again a similar scene was playing out. Glancing up again at the young mutant the woman could see how pale he was, and Don's worry was having an amplifying effect on her own. _

"_I wasn't sure at first—no that's wrong, I didn't want to believe it at first so I called LH to confirm it," Donatello began. The anthropomorphic Red-Eared Slider glanced over at the mutant American Alligator reading the chemical analysis of the foreign cells invading their human vigilante friend's body. "But Casey's infection bares unsettling similarities with the outbreak virus. Not only that, but going off the rate at which Casey's cells are being transformed and the physical changes happening to him I'd say he has less than 48 hours until his body is fully taken over…" _

….

The redhead thumbed through the address book worried for her fiancé and frightened at the implication of her reptilian friends' results. She dialed the number in his address book and listened to the phone to ring. Casey was getting worse and the stubborn man was determined to keep some promise or another. Damn his stubbornness, they needed to know what happened in Bellwood. After what seemed like an eternity, someone picked up on the other end.

"_Hello?"_

Merrowww…..

A/N: Thanks for reading and please review.


	3. Chapter 3 Munchies

A/N: Helloha peoples. The story continues and so does the torment of Casey and others. In answer to a random reviewer; no the Ultimatrix cannot be used to cure Casey. Unlike the Omnitrix it doesn't have the genetic repair function.

Disclaimer: I do not own any elements, characters, or story arcs from either the TMNT or Ben 10 franchise. I'm merely a fan who likes the whole good guys getting involuntarily transformed or brainwashed/mind controlled.

Merrowww….

Metamorphosis

Munchies

"Fascinating," The cyborg scientist remarked as he watched the transformations taking place on the slides. Reading over the chemical and genetic analysis of the strange black cells, he turned to his employer. "These cells are most assuredly of alien origin. Similar to those fake aliens that I, Baxter Stockman, was able to create in such short notice, these alien cells seem to contain genetic material from several different species. It's a rather interesting design, in the black cells the genetic code is a horrifically unstable jumble of proteins and nucleic acids but once inside the human cells it stabilizes, mutates the host cell and begins to incorporate the host's DNA."

"Do you think you could extract the alien genetic material for weapons use?" The leader of the Earth Protection Force asked the transhuman. He pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose causing the lights from the monitors to reflect off them.

"You insult my intelligence, Bishop, of course I can." Stockman replied crossing his improved metallic arms over his equally artificial chest. "However, it would be a bit more beneficial to observe the actual organism in order to best apply it. I need to know what size cage we would need to contain the first batch of clones."

"I believe that I can arrange that," The government agent smirked. "And while I'm at it I can cause a bit of trouble for our turtle friends as well."

Merrowww…

"Dude calm down, we're not going to crash." Kevin tried to reassure Soran. The Osmosian Healer was clutching the seatbelt and door handle tight enough that the olive skin of his knuckles turned white. The green haired alien didn't pay much attention to him as he kept making this anxious growling noise in the back of his throat.

The two of them were headed to New York after his mom got a call from his cousin's girl. Apparently, Case had gotten really sick and this April woman thought the nut might have caught something during his stay in Bellwood. The lean Healer suggested that Casey's sickness might be related to his time with Animo. Meaning that it was probably all his fault that that his cousin was ill. Either way the two males had been called away from having their hair played with by Case's adorable little hellspawn to go see if they could help.

Merrowww…..

The sharp metallic tang of blood stung his tongue as the vigilante bit his lip to keep from crying out in pain as he hid in a dark corner of the dojo. Crying out would mean the others would find him and that would only make things worse. Even now, he could barely stand it.

After his migraine cleared up, he couldn't take a breath without feeling it, this buzz coming from nearly everything. The turtles, Leatherhead, April, Serling, the lights, the television wall, wires on the floor and walls, everywhere. This lonely dark corner was the only place in the lair where he hear himself think without the buzzing clouding his mind and peaking his appetite. That was another reason Casey isolated himself, he couldn't get full no matter how much he ate and he knew it was a bad thing that lookin' at his friends was starting to make his mouth water.

A creeping feeling raced through his fingers and toes. The brunette kicked off his sneakers as the ends of his digits burned in agony. He watched in silence as his nails cracked and peeled. Crimson liquid dripped from his fingertips and dark flowers bloomed on his socks. Small bumps pushed themselves out of his nail beds and caused the remains of his nails to drop off as they grew into large curved hooks. The fabric of his sports socks irritated the sensitive nubs on his toes. New nail grew covering the blunt hooks, hardening them into thick sharp claws.

"**Great, just fuckin' great." **Casey Jones groaned as he tried to remove his socks, for his toe claws poked through the tops of the blood stained fabric. Unused to manipulating things with hands ending in razor blades the well-worn socks were shredded to bits, but his feet were finally free.

The buzz increased as he sensed that someone was coming. _Why can't they just me alone for awhile?_ The vigilante loved them but they were starting to annoy him with their hovering and buzzing. _**Hide.**_ There was that voice again straight from his nightmare. Deep, inhuman, and powerful it had been getting louder all day. _**Be wall.**_ The ill man pressed himself as close to the bricks as possible trying to hide in the deepest part of the shadows.

Merrowww…..

_Where in the world is Casey?_ The hotheaded terrapin thought as he entered the dojo/weight room. When he and Leo came back from cyberspace, passing the torch to Serling and Professor Honeycutt, they went to the lab to find out what his egghead brother and LH discovered. The idea that his best bud was going through the same mutagenic nightmare that his slightly older brother went through years ago. Part of him was worried about how to fix this, about how to keep Casey from hurting people if (when) he mutated into some sort of monster. Another part of him was aching to find whoever did this to his best bud and shove his sai so far up the sonova bitch's ass that the bastard could pick his teeth with the prongs.

However, when everyone had gone to check on the SpaceCase, the vigilante had disappeared. Mikey said that the last time he saw Casey was the human nursing a migraine after cleaning out half their fridge. The comedic brother had gone to his room for a bit after being snapped at by an irate Casey after an ill-timed comment. The red clad turtle had volunteered to search for the human in the far side of the Lair while the others looked elsewhere.

"Case, you in here?" Raphael asked aloud after his foot bumped a deep green sneaker. The shoe was way too large to fit April but not quite wide enough for a mutant turtle. _Why'd he take off his shoes?_ Not far away from the shoes, he found bloody smears and shredded cloth. Instantly on alert his hands flew to his sai, he knew Donnie said that the vigilante had at least two days before he finished mutating, but Casey was the unpredictable sort. More warily, the teen reptile called, "Casey, yer not well. Donnie says that ya need ya rest."

A faint growl was the only warning Raph got before over 225 pounds of muscle slammed him to the ground. What felt like cold sharp blades dug into his shoulders and shin, warmth oozed out the wounds suggesting that blood was drawn. The larger male hadn't reacted to the knee digging into his rock hard abdominals as he was busy biting into the turtle's forearm.

"Casey, let go." The turtle warned narrowing his eyes behind his red mask. The side of the longest prong of his weapon pressed against the human's throat with the point of one of the shorter prongs threatening to break the skin. The mutating vigilante responded with a rumbling growl and tightening of his jaw around the scaly forearm, drawing more blood. The turtle suppressed a shudder when he felt a scalding tongue run over the trapped flesh. They stayed like that for what seemed like an eternity. Casey's ice blue eyes stared into his own brown-orange ones. The human's pupils were narrowed into faint pinpricks causing the color of the iris to appear lighter.

Suddenly, the vigilante's pupils dilated and his brow knotted in confusion. Slowly, the large man let go and got off the teen. The mammal held his head as if in pain and was breathing heavily, almost hyperventilating. Casey looked around sharply, sniffing the air before diving into a pool.

"Raph, did you find him?" Leo called as he entered the room. Spotting his younger sibling injured the blue bandanna-ed turtle rushed to his side. "What happened?"

…

"It appears that we failed to consider the mental side effects of the transformation on our human friend's mutation." The mutant crocodilian noted as he examined the blood from the shredded and smelly socks. "Mr. Jones may become dangerous far sooner than predicted."

"Which means that we have to get him back here ASAP." Leonardo added. The blue wearing turtle watched as the redhead finished bandaging his younger brother's shin. His other brother used forceps to pull human teeth out of the wound on the stout turtle's forearm. "Mikey and I will go look. Raph, you can join us as soon as your wounds close. April we need you to go back to the apartment and talk to Casey's cousin. Professor, we're going to need you and Serling to stay in the lair and alert us if he comes back on his own."

"Affirmative." Answered the transhuman in the other room helping the robotic butler collect their friend's father's data bits.

"Leatherhead, do you still have that containment pod?"

"Yes, I do. I'll bring it over and set it up." The American alligator nodded before removing his lab coat. As he left, Leatherhead placed a massive webbed hand on April's shoulder and gave a reassuring squeeze.

"Be careful guys." She wished them well before leaving as well.

Merrowww….

Claws digging into brick Casey hauled himself out of the water. Shaking off some excess water, he sniffed and felt the minor buzzing of a few rats. His jaw ached as he spat loose teeth and blood. His tongue ran gingerly over the still bleeding gums feeling sharp points poking out of them. Groaning, he leaned against the curved wall of the tunnel.

The thought of attacking his best friend to…to try to eat him made him feel sick to his stomach. The scents of the grimy sewer and the gurgling from his belly weren't helping his nausea. Unable to take it any longer the brunette leaned over vomited thick coppery fluid. He kept going for who knows how long till his guts felt empty. Breathing heavily he rested against the slimy wall again. He felt and heard the rats come closer to inspect the bloody mess.

The hunger came again, gnawing at his mind and dulling his thoughts. The voice wasn't helping his resolve either; it urged him to **kill**, to **feed**, and to **gorge** himself/themselves with that alluring, annoying buzzing. For a moment he slipped again, the hunger took over him. When the mutating vigilante came to again, he was swallowing something bloody and furry and squirming. Its long scaly tail was slurped up and down his throat before he could do anything about it. Futilely he scrubbed his tongue with his shirt to get the metallic taste out his mouth. Tired and temporarily stuffed, Casey curled up to sleep holding his distended belly.

Merrowww…

A/N: The third chapter is here. Please review to let me know how I'm doing with this fic.


	4. Chapter 4 Meet

A/N: Continuing the story. Many thanks to those of you who reviewed.

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or TMNT. If I did I'd use the tortured cries of the characters as lullabies and the fevered nightmares of the viewers as inspiration. Muwhahahahahahahahahahahahah!

Merrowww….

Metamorphosis

Meet

Pushing the manhole cover was much easier than usual; the mutating man didn't even need to put his back into it, the heavy iron disk moved with just a firm one-handed push. What bothered him most about moving the manhole cover was the sound his claws made against the metal.

The space between his eyes throbbed as the buzzing increased, but he couldn't stay in the sewers. The Turtles would definitely find him if he stayed in the sewers; they had come close a few times earlier. The only reason they hadn't discovered him yet was due to their buzzing alerting the vigilante to their presence well before they noticed his. It was better for everyone involved if the ninjas didn't find him. If they found him… if they found him, he wasn't sure he could keep himself from attacking them. He was sooooo **hungry** that his mouth watered as he thought about all that lovely exposed turtle flesh. The pain of his tongue running over and cutting itself on the sharp emerging tips of the new teeth crowding his jaws brought the vigilante back to reality. Casey emitted a low growl, scolding himself for drooling at—at the thought of trying to **kill** and **eat** his friends. He also didn't like the idea of the bros having to hurt him to protect themselves or others.

Sharp claws scratched iron and dug onto cement as the mutating man climbed out of the manhole. The sun light was hot, Hot, HOT on his exposed skin. He felt the light dance and stab his flesh in a way that felt _soooo good,_ but it made his head hurt more and that was bad. Crawling, Casey made his way to a nearby dumpster and climbed in. Ignoring the smell, he shifted till he was comfortable in the rotting and strangely appetizing garbage. He decided to wait for dusk to get back out because the light had made him feel a bit… tipsy, was the best he could describe it. Being drunk and mind numbingly hungry at the same time would be very, very bad.

Merrowww….

Straining the redhead pushed aside the heavy bookcase to enter the basement of her building. Even if it was on wheels, moving the cover for secret sewer entrance was not as easy as the guys made it look. After placing the tall shelf back in its place, April made her way upstairs. She was not expecting the door open when she pressed on at as she got the keys from her pocket.

Ok, as a New Yorker she had the sense to lockup everything before going out and that things being unlocked was a very bad thing. Backing away from the door the pale-skinned woman grabbed a golf club from one of the quivers her fiancé left around in case of emergency. _Thank god for Casey's sport's equipment fetish._ Opening the door slowly she spotted movement and lunged.

The intruder whirled around and caught the club, yanking it out of her grasp and he froze as he was readying a punch. Taking advantage of the intruder's hesitation April dropped into a crouch and swept the bulky male's feet out from under him. The trespasser groaned and held up his hands in submission. That's when the agitated woman recognized Casey's cousin.

"Sorry about that." She apologized, offering a slim hand to help the teen up.

"No prob', shoulda realized that just walkin' in would be a bad idea." The young man gave her a roguish grin as he took her hand. His big rough paws completely encompassed her own as he hauled himself up. "You're April, right?"

"Yes, and you're Kevin, correct." Something nagged her about what he said. "Excuse me, did you say that you just walked in?"

"Uh… yeah, I thought that was kinda strange." Crossing strong arms over his broad chest the young man glanced around the room. "You'd think that if someone broke in there'd be some signs of forced entry or theft."

"Whoever invaded this den, was quite… skilled, I think is the word," Soran added, sniffing around at the windowsill. The green-eyed woman jumped a bit at the sound of the skinny man's voice, she hadn't noticed him at all when she entered the apartment. She remembered him as one of the friends of Casey's aunt that were visiting her from out of the country. The green ponytail kinda made it hard to forget. "It appears that there were many of them as well."

"That reminds me," Kevin said, his face was completely serious. "What's going on with Casey?"

Merrowww….

The dark slithering blobs and "ringed planet"-shaped blood cells were immensely familiar to the Healer. They were far more familiar than the blood vessel and muscle cells that they were converting. True, since he started working as a Plumber he'd practiced on many aliens and learned much about their weird biologies, but the species that he knew the most intimately was his own. Bringing his orange gaze away from the microscope, Soran read the genetic analysis.

"What do you think?" The young reptilian Healer-Smith asked, distress for his ally painfully evident even on such alien features. It never failed to mystify him that any intelligent species would display their emotions so blatantly in front of strangers. Perhaps such expressiveness as the result of a human upbringing, he noticed similar over expression in Levin's Earth hatched offspring. Humans were pretty bizarre in general, it wouldn't surprise him if that was the reason.

"How do I explain this…" The Healer began. "The young Jones is perfectly healthy." The scaly adolescent gave him a look that likely meant that he was confused, probably.

"A massive fever followed by obvious mutations isn't what most people call healthy."

"The fever was likely the result of his human immune cells reacting to the Osmosian cells infecting his body. As the Osmosian immune response converted increasing numbers of the native cells the fever ended due to there being no significant resistance." The green mohawked alien continued, rubbing the area between his horns as he thought. "The mutations Jones is experiencing are common symptoms of molting, probably a byproduct of Kevin's younger Osmosian genetic material incorporating the older human DNA of Jones' cells."

"So? What? Is Case going through Osmosian puberty or something?" The hatchling asked as he assisted the adult beakless reptile in modifying the containment unit it brought to the beaked reptile's den. The Healer briefly thought about sitting down with his friends' offspring later to discuss his feelings about this experience.

"Or something, once our kind reach a certain age our normally chaotic genetic code begins to undergo periodic stabilizations that trigger transformations." Soran answered. "During the molt… our minds change. We become more aggressive and… what is the word? Yes, animalistic. Our appetites become insatiable and anything or anyone could end up as a meal…"

Merrowww…..

There were three of them out there; human sized. Or was it turtle sized? Their buzzing fully woke him after who knows how long of a time he spent sleeping or only half-awake snacking on roaches and rats and rotting food. The faint sounds of tearing cloth did not escape his notice as the mutating man shifted uncomfortably in the much more cramped confines of the dumpster. Casey could have sworn that the thing had more space when he got in it earlier.

"Now, now little lady we just can't let you leave after entering Purple Dragon territory without paying the toll." _Purple…Dragons?_ A low growl started deep in the vigilante's chest and his abused lips pulled back in a fearsome grin that showed far too many sharp teeth than what could properly fit in a human mouth. The mutating man was torn between the desires to fight some Dragon scum, preventing harm to innocent people, and the gnawing hunger welling up inside him again. He wasn't sure what motivated him to leave his shelter but before he knew it, he was perched on top of the dumpster behind the distracted crooks.

"**Hey, Puuuurple Draaaaagons! You wanna plaaaaay?"**

….

Casey didn't know exactly when he lost himself again, but when he came to he smelled blood everywhere. His mouth was so overstuffed with bloody still warm flesh that his cheeks bulged and some of it hung out past his cutup lips. The vigilante was awake now… but his body wasn't listening to him. Instead, it obeyed that other voice, the one demanding that they **feed**. He could only wait gulp after gulp as his belly was crammed with as much it could hold.

With his appetite temporarily sated, the mutating man could fully control himself once more. Groaning, he fell back on his rump and rubbed his painfully stretched abdomen. He looked around the alley to try to figure out just what he had done. The blue-eyed man was surprised how clearly he could see the purple tail of a dragon tattoo on part of an arm on one of the bodies. The shin of the other carcass contained the neck and head of a rather detailed dragon. He breathed a sigh of relief knowing that he hadn't harmed the woman the thugs had been harassing.

Sleep tugged at Casey's mind but he forced himself to his feet anyway. He knew that it was the best time for him to move.

…..

The mutating man wasn't sure why he was here. Yeah, he usually went to his own apartment when he wanted to be alone and he kept a lot of his stuff there, but there were people here as well, neighbors. The doors and walls of the apartment building were not strong enough to keep him from getting to them if—when he got hungry enough.

Clawed fingers teased the bottom of the window, not expecting it to open so easily. A loud rumble started deep in his thorax. How DARE someone trespass on HIS property! Snarling he pushed the window up all the way and started shoving himself inside. It was much more difficult than it should have been to get his broad shoulders through the frame and his gut gave him no relief even if it had shrunk some since he last ate. The faint sound of some sort of gun was difficult to hear over his own grunts and snarls as he finally squeezed his large form into the apartment. The feeling of several sharp things piercing his shoulders and thighs were ignored in favor of the man standing calmly in the center of the room.

"Mr. Jones, you seem to have put on weight since the last time we met." The man smirked, pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. Incensed further by the other's attitude the mutating man crouched further, baring his fangs before lunging with a roar.

Merrowww…

A/N: Another chapter complete. Tell me what you think.

P.S. Soran refers to Donatello as a "Healer-Smith" due to the turtle acting as the doctor for his family, hence the Healer part of the title. And the fact that the turtle is also an inventor and mechanic, in other words a Smith.


End file.
